The Apprentice (American TV series)

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The Apprentice
Genre	Reality competition
Created by	Mark Burnett
Starring	Donald Trump George H. Ross Carolyn Kepcher Bill Rancic Ivanka Trump Donald Trump Jr. Eric Trump Sean Yazbeck
Theme music composer	Kenneth Gamble Leon Huff Anthony Jackson
Opening theme	"For the Love of Money" by The O'Jays
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	15
No. of episodes	192
Production
Producers	Mark Burnett Donald Trump Arnold Schwarzenegger (2017)
Production locations	Trump Tower, New York City (2004–2015)
Running time	60 minutes (seasons 1–7, 10) 120 minutes (seasons 8–9, 11–15)
Production company	Trump Productions (2004–2015) (seasons 1–14) Mark Burnett Productions (2004–2011) (seasons 1–11) One Three Media (2012–2013) (seasons 12–13) United Artists Media Group (2015) (season 14) MGM Television (2017) (season 15)
Original release
Network	NBC
Release	January 8, 2004 (2004-01-08) – February 13, 2017 (2017-02-13)
Related
The Celebrity Apprentice The Apprentice: Martha Stewart The Ultimate Merger The Apprentice (UK)
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The Apprentice is an American reality television program that judged the business skills of a group of contestants. It ran in various formats across fifteen seasons on NBC from 2004 to 2017. The Apprentice was created by British television producer Mark Burnett,^[1] and co-produced with Donald Trump, who was the show's host for the first fourteen seasons.^[2]

Billed as "The Ultimate Job Interview", seven of the show's seasons featured aspiring, but otherwise unknown, businesspeople who would vie for the show's prize, a one-year $250,000 starting contract to promote one of Donald Trump's properties. The show features 14 to 18 such business people who compete over the course of the season, with usually one contestant eliminated per episode. Contestants are split into two "corporations" (teams), with one member from each volunteering as a project manager on each new task. The corporations complete business-related tasks such as selling products, raising money for charity, or creating an advertising campaign, with one corporation selected as the winner based on objective measures and subjective opinions of the host and the host's advisors who monitor the teams' performance on tasks. The losing corporation attends a boardroom meeting with the show's host and their advisors to break down why they lost and determine who contributed the least to the team. Episodes ended with the host eliminating one contestant from the competition, with the words "You're fired!"

There have also been eight seasons of The Celebrity Apprentice since 2008. In this format, several celebrities would participate to win money for their chosen charities, with the final prize being a large donation to the celebrity's charity and the title of "Apprentice". A reboot of this format, The New Celebrity Apprentice, aired in January 2017. The American series originated a franchise of international television shows collectively known as The Apprentice, which has had over 20 local versions.

Trump was fired by NBC^[3] when the studio disagreed with remarks he made about Mexican immigrants during his announcement that he was running for President of the United States^[4] on June 16, 2015. It was announced in September 2015 that actor and former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger would become the new host of The Celebrity Apprentice,^[5][6] starting January 2017. Lifestyle mogul Martha Stewart hosted a one-season spin-off titled The Apprentice: Martha Stewart in 2005.